A handbook aimed at the layman which explains medical jargon and gives clear explanations of why doctors do what they do. It equips the patient with the background knowledge needed to ask the right questions during a doctor’s appointment and gain an insight into the rationale behind the doctor’s own questions and the physical examinations he or she might subsequently carry out. It will also enable the patient to understand the why and wherefore of other tests and investigations, perhaps carried out in a hospital which their GP might recommend as a result of a physical examination, and about how the drugs, which might have been prescribed, work. The book also explains the roles of the various hospital specialists and the way hospitals work.